Why Rear-Facing Is Better: Your RF Link Guide

Here’s a list of concrete reasons why we recommend rear-facing past age 1 and 20 lbs. That old recommendation that many pediatricians still hold onto stresses the bare minimums of when to turn a child forward-facing. Who wants the minimum for their child? It’s best practice to rear-face to the limits of the child’s convertible carseat: check the label for the rear-facing weight limit and make sure there’s at least 1″ of carseat above the top of his head.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended since 2002 that after age 1 and 20 lbs., children should ride in a rear-facing convertible seat until reaching the weight limit of that carseat. They’ve just amended that policy (3/2011) to recommend rear-facing to age 2 or until they reach the “highest weight or height allowed” by that convertible carseat. (http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/25435)

The back of the car seat supports the head, neck, and spine of a child in a frontal crash. “When a child is in a rear-facing seat, the head, neck and spine are all kept fully aligned and the child is allowed to “ride down” the crash while the back of the child restraint absorbs the bulk of the crash force.” (http://cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx)

Note how the legs fly away from the back of the vehicle seat during the rear-facing test on the left. In the forward-facing seat, the properly secured dummy bends nearly in half during the crash test. Photo courtesy Kathy Weber, ret., UMTRI, and SafetyBeltSafe USA.

The semi-reclined position allows the child to sleep comfortably and there’s always a place to put the child’s legs without dangling uncomfortably in front.

Child passenger safety is very much based on statistics. It’s more likely that a frontal or side impact will occur than a rear impact. Rear-facing carseats provide the best protection against those types of impacts. (http://www.crashtest.com/imgserver/angle468.gif )

A tightly installed rear-facing carseat allows the vehicle and carseat to absorb crash forces and increases “ride down,” the amount of time it takes a body to come to a stop in a crash. The longer the ride down time, the less chance of injury. (http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html)

Rear-facing carseats provide excellent protection in side impacts as well. Because there’s usually a vehicle moving forward, as through an intersection, that element of forward motion can easily throw a child’s head clear of the carseat if he’s forward-facing. If rear-facing, his head will stay protected inside the carseat. (http://www.carseatsite.com/rf.htm)

Infants and young toddlers have spines made of soft bone and cartilage that doesn’t begin to harden until around age 3. As a result, the spinal column can stretch up to 2 inches; however, the spinal cord will rupture after being stretched after only ¼ inch. This damage cannot be repaired. (http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tech_update.htm#rearfacFF)

Approximately 75% of kids in Sweden rear-face until at least age 4. From 1999-2006, only 4 rear-facing children under age 4 were killed in crashes and their deaths were due to circumstances unrelated to the direction the carseat was facing (fire, drowning, excessive intrusion). During that same timeframe, 6 kids under age 4 facing forward in booster seats were killed; 3 of these crashes were potentially survivable crashes had the children been in rear-facing carseats. (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/jun11_2/b1994)

Anecdotal evidence suggests that infants around ages 10 mos.-18 mos. enter a fussy stage that makes it difficult to put them into any carseat, rear- or forward-facing. Many parents prematurely switch the rear-facing carseat forward-facing thinking that the child is objecting to riding rear-facing, when the child is objecting to being restrained at all. Visit the Car Seat Safety forums at www.car-seat.org and you’ll hear from other experienced parents regarding this phase.

The above video shows how the dummy stays contained in the seat during a rear-facing crash test. The tape on the dummy’s head is for measurement and doesn’t affect its head during the test.

This video is the companion video to the one above and shows a side view of the crash test. Note how little the head moves.

LOL! C’mon people – do you REALLY think we would post a picture with blatent misuse? His harness is/was properly adjusted. Since it’s my kid (albeit 4 years ago)and I took the picture – I can guarantee that it was fine. It’s just the way he’s slumping to one side while sleeping that is causing that effect. Plus, you can see it’s adjusted properly since it’s straight and snug on one side. The MA harness isn’t one continuous strap like a Scenera so it’s not possible for one side to be looser than the other (unless something is wrong). Now obviously the picture wasn’t staged which is why is doesn’t look perfect but it does a nice job illustrating that toddlers are much more comfortable in the RF position (especially when sleeping) due to the recline angle and their ability to prop their feet up.

Thanks for clarifying, Kecia. I wouldn’t have used the photo if I thought the harness was incorrect. It’s actually acting like a Britax harness: they are a bit looser over the belly while staying snug on the shoulders. His hips are also shifted over to his left, which accounts for the slack. I bet when he woke up, the slack in that strap disappeared because he was no longer limp.

while I’m all for safety, I don’t feel having a child crammed up in a rear facing seat all that safe. Also, children are all unique. Different sizes, heights, weights and won’t fit into this mold. For example, when my oldest was four he no longer fit his booster seat. He was just too long, and the older booster seats had bars that went across the legs, and his poor legs would be squished to the point he’d complain of pain. My youngest is heavy enough and old enough for front facing. She also has proven her dislike for the rear facing by lifting her head up and smashing herself back into the seat when we are in the car and moving. She moves the whole seat. I also do not agree with leaving a child in a booster seat until they are 8yrs old. I might as well stick my kid in a bubble. Oh and that whole seat not reclining if it’s front facing is outdated. More vehicles have back seats that are already reclined, or it’s possible to recline them so that a front facing seat can sit properly in the vehicle. I think people need to practice using car seats properly, but also learn how to be defensive drivers and drive properly themselves. That in itself will keep one safer. As for keeping rear facing. There is safe and there is overkill.

Is it overkill to get your kid a flu shot for your toddler? To have them wear a life preserver? To keep poisons, matches and weapons out of reach? Of course not, despite the fact that some parents may feel these things are overkill. As Heather indicated in her references, studies are showing that it is not overkill to keep a child rear facing to at least 2 years old and preferably beyond. Motor vehicle crashes claim more lives of children than any other cause, and extended rear-facing is proving to be one method to reduce these numbers.

Having a child in a carseat is hardly like putting them in a “bubble”. What freedoms are they losing, exactly? The freedom to escape a seat belt more easily and roam about unsafely in the car?

Children’s attitudes toward being in a child seat are another issue. In cases of behavior, each child is indeed unique. For example, for those who cry because of leg room, those same reclining seat backs that can help accomodate a front facing seat also give a little more leg room for rear-facing.

That video of the front facing crash test was absurd. The seatbelt was clearly not locked as intended. My kids are too old for this to apply to them, so other than pointing out that seatbelts in modern cars have locking mechanisms so you can lock the seatbelt in place, I will stay out of this.

Kristy, I assure you that in a crash test, all seat belts are locked per legal requirements. If you look at the seat belt path itself, the red piece is a belt lockoff which locks the seat belt. So while the shoulder belt looks as though it isn’t locked, the lap portion is. There is always considerable belt stretch in crash situations on both the seat belt and the harness, which is why both must be snug.

Looking, I’m not going to rebut your arguments because the links I’ve given in the blog post do that quite adequately. I would like to say that I do agree that all drivers should drive defensively and properly, they should signal with every lane change and turn, and they should make use of every available safety device available to them. However, I can drive as defensively as I can, but it’s the drunk/impaired/texting/cellphonetalking driver who isn’t that’s going to crash into me. I can’t stop at every green light before proceeding through the intersection just to make sure it’s safe. I can’t drive defensively when the guy behind me has an attitude and wants to drive me off the road. I prepare for those situations by making sure my kids have the safest equipment available to them and that I’m wearing my safety equipment. I hope you are too.

To whomever commented that their 4 year old was squished, please do some research on the avilable carseats!

My daughter was 11lbs, 4ozs at birth and is consistently in the 90th percentile for height and weight. But I know there are carseats available that will safely and comfortably take her into the toddler years rearfacing.

For those who have tall and skinny kids, the Radian XTSL is a great choice. It will take your chil rearfacing to 45lbs and forward facing HARNESSED to 65lbs.

My super tall 5 year old sister is rearfacing in a True Fit right now. They can easily put their legs over the side or fold them indian style. You don’t even need to teach them this; little kids know how to do these things easily.

I’d rather have my child fold her legs indian style than deal with a snapped spine. It really does boggle my mind that debate even exists in this topic.

I’d be interested in seeing video on a crash test done with a forward facing seat that had the latch system installed as well as the top tether that ties the top of the child’s car seat down. Do you guys know of one of those that we can see?

To the person who commented on how it’s absurd to use a booster for an 8 yr old I would like to tell you that my 10 yr old son has been in a booster seat since he outgrew his carseat. He is in a backless booster right now but a booster none the less. He is 51 inches tall and 56 lbs and does NOT fit correctly in the seat without the booster.

http://www.carseat.org has a simple 5 step test to check to see if your child still needs a booster. It is not necessarily about height, weight or age it is how they FIT sitting in the car/truck. Seatbelts were designed to fit an average size man not a child!!!

My son has never been teased by anyone and he doesn’t argue with me much about it because he knows he will not win. I do not bend with safety issues. Just as I would not let him play with a gun or smoke a cigarette I will not let him become a moving projectile in the car. He can argue with me all he wants as long as he is alive and here to argue with me.

Oh and my son is not in a bubble or deprived of anything. He does karate, snowboarding, baseball, swimming, he has a bike, a scooter, etc. He has always been given every opportunity to do whatever he wants. My only rule is he must have safety in mind so he wears his helmet and any other safety equipment as needed.

My 7 month old daughter just graduated to her new Radian XTSL. I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that my child isn’t less important than the children of other countries like Sweden who have higher standards when it comes to child passenger safety. So my daughter will be RF until she is at least 45 lbs. Thank you for this site. It just gives me more hope and confidence that I am not the only one who cares about this issue.

Is there a video of front facing using the LATCH system? I have a friend who thinks because they used the seatbelt in that video that the same thing wouldn’t happen if it was the LATCH forward facing. Video link?????

I think the latch system would help prevent the car seat from being thrown all around. However I think even with the latch system the head and limbs of the child would still be forced violently forward causing considerable injuries.

Here are some videos showing a forward-facing seat installed with LATCH. Note that belt stretch does occur with LATCH as well. Again, with forward-facing kids, we see lots of lower leg injuries as the legs fly into the front seats. If the seat is installed loosely, the injuries increase in severity since the head may also strike the vehicle interior.

There is always a fine line between being safety conscious and going overboard. If my family had followed the guidelines about how long a child should be in a car seat and booster seat, I would have been in one (depending on which guidelines you consult) through the first year of HIGH SCHOOL!

Many of my 12 younger siblings would have been in the same unfortunate and humiliating position. We were certainly all forward-facing by 2 years old depending on the child, and my parents were indubitably the most overprotective I have ever heard of…you should have seen us trying to rollerblade with helmets, mouth guards, kneepads, elbow pads and wrist guards!

Also, we are currently trying to decide what to do with our own daughter about her car seat. I tried simulating the possible positions in which she could she could wind up. While the earlier example of sitting on a barstool without your feet propped gets uncomfortable (as in a forward-facing seat), so does sitting in a reclined position with your knees up like the kid in the picture.

Someone mentioned that our knees also bend when we sit straight up, but if you recline that position like a child in a car seat would be doing, the raised knees cause a loss of blood. I am a coach and have tried to sleep that way on many long, late bus trips. There is absolutely no feeling in your legs when you get up. I don’t really know what the best solution is….I suppose ever-adapting car seat models, but there’s only so much space to work with inside a car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvyIv9QVRBE is a great video that shows kids happily RF with their legs in different positions. It also shows a little boy, Joel, who received a broken neck from FF in a minor car accident. I think if we asked Joel how comfortable the back brace was that he had to wear for a very long time he would say not too comfy! Just my opinion of course. I have also been on long car trips with children of all ages and I can safely say that their bladders give out long before their legs do. If you are taking a car trip with a child you should plan on making frequent stops to use the restroom and stretch everyones legs. Even my legs get sore sitting in the front seat. No one will have to ask me twice whether I would choose my child complaining of sore legs and needing to stop the vehicle to stretch over my child complaining that her back brace or neck brace is uncomfortable and having no ability to alleviate her discomfort.

Do you have any links that explain spinal development in toddlers? I’d like to see more about that. I want more fuel for discussing with peers. My daughter is still rear facing at 2.5 and will continue to. We have no issues to battle, i.e. our Radian fits well rear-facing in our car, she is happy as a clam in her seat, she doesn’t get carsick, etc. When I talk about extended rear-facing to my peers, they always have some sort of seemingly reasonable issue with it-issues my children have never encountered. Are they just projecting? I don’t know. It reminds me of someone above who said how absurd it would be to have your child in a booster through junior high. It’s only absurd because you as a parent assumes it is and teaches your child it is (and other parents teach their children that attitude as well). There is nothing inherently absurd about it…

One of the links to studies you title as “Forward-facing children are more likely to sustain leg injuries in crashes than rear-facing children.” But when I clicked over and read the abstract, it said nothing about the *comparative* rate of leg injuries in RF vs FF, only that the issue of lower leg injuries in FF needs to be addressed. Can someone who has read the full study, not just the abstract, weigh in?

Amy, let me see if I can find someone with a copy of that study to see if they compared rf to ff leg injuries. What I do know is anecdotally, injuries do occur when a child is rf, but they are rare and tend to be from severe crashes.

I think people who question whether a tether or latch system was used in the FFing crash tests are missing the point. It’s the force of the head moving forward that’s dangerous, and no car seat is equipped with a head strap! Remember your high school physics class, and that whole bit about inertia? It doesn’t matter whether the car seat is tethered, latched, whatever – it’s the HEAD and LIMBS continuing to move when the car’s forward motion is abruptly slowed that creates the force on the child’s neck. RFing car seats prevent that from happening and absorb that force, which is esp. important for infants and toddlers whose heads are so large in relation to their bodies, and necks are comparatively weak. The forces in a rear-end collision tend to be lower and are distributed differently thru the vehicle, making RFing safe for those crashes as well.

Thanks for putting this together. We are RFing our 2nd child much longer – live and learn! I wish our laws would change to protect more children.

The head excursion relative to the vehicle seat is very much related to the performance of the child safety seat and how well it is coupled to the vehicle through the seatbelt or LATCH system. When front facing, that performance is almost always improved with a tether. The less head excursion, the less risk that the head strikes a hard interior feature of the vehicle. There is no doubt that rear-facing is a safer mode of travel, especially for babies and toddlers that cannot as easily withstand the forces on the neck and spine in a front facing child seat. Later, as a child’s body matures, the skeletal and connective tissues can withstand these forces better and the main risk becomes that of a direct impact to the head. Properly installed and used, front-facing seats provide a great deal of protection, too.

For all of the parents worrying about leg injuries–isn’t it more important to protect your child’s neck? Leg bones are much stronger than neck bones, and they can be fixed, whereas a neck cannot. An impact strong enough to break a leg is strong enough to break a neck. Even if you don’t believe the statistics indicating that rear facing children are not more likely to injur their legs, isn’t it still more prudent to protect against the most severe and potentially fatal type of injury?

I am a huge advocate for car seat safety!!! This is a great demonstration on why it’s so important to keep them rear facing for as long as possible! I have shared this link with friends and family and on Facebook to help educate people with young children. Thank you for sharing this with everyone, it is so important to keep our babies safe as possible!

The information presented in the article is awesome. Some of the photos depict unsafe care seat practices though. Such as the after market car seat cover in one. There is also one where the straps are not tight enough. Please try to be a little more mindful of the pictures you attach to your articles and make sure they show correct and safe car seat practices. Thank you.

Hi Amanda. You must be talking about the Ashley Floral cover in the first pic. That’s a legitimate Britax cover from eons ago that they had for the Marathon. As for Kecia’s sleeping son, his harness was tight enough, but he had shifted in his sleep so that it looked loose. I wouldn’t have used the pic if she hadn’t assured me beforehand that he was safe. Thanks for reading!